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A Common Weed — The Poppy, [april, 1909. 



present on farms for generations, they may be introduced to 

 otherwise clean farms by means of unclean seed. The seed 

 germinates most freely on a soil in good tilth in the spring, 

 during damp, warm weather, while the established plants 

 grow most rapidly and strongly during hot summer weather. 

 Unless protective measures be adopted, flowers will quickly 

 mature, seed capsules will be formed, and the thousands of 

 seeds will speedily be distributed by the wind. Although 

 subsequent deep ploughing may bury them, future cultiva- 

 tion will bring them to the surface, and the crops will 

 again be infested, with a tendency to serious reduction in 

 the yield. 



Narcotic Properties, &fc. — Several of the poppies contain 

 active toxic or narcotic principles, the worst species in this 

 respect being the Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum), and 

 the drugs opium, morphine, and laudanum are prepared from 

 poppies. Cornevin states that P. Rhoeas is poisonous in all 

 its parts, and sufficiently so to occasion accidents every year. 

 The poisonous property is due to the alkaloids morphine and 

 rhceadine. Domestic animals may be poisoned when fed with 

 clovers or sainfoin which are infested with the poppy, or 

 even when they take the capsules with other waste matter 

 from winnowing or grading cereals. 



Professor Henslow says that cattle have been "occasionally 

 injured by eating unripe poppy-heads when the plant was 

 mixed with clover and sainfoin." In general, however, stock 

 are safe where poppies abound, because the disagreeable taste 

 and smell of the flowers and plants render them obnoxious 

 to the stock. 



According to Cornevin, cattle poisoned by P. Rhoeas exhibit 

 at first symptoms of excitement, shown by continual move- 

 ment, by pawing the soil or litter, by increased respiration 

 and a more rapid pulse. This is followed by stoppage of the 

 digestive functions, and sometimes a little swelling of the 

 eyelids. These preliminary symptoms are succeeded by a 

 period of coma, the animal appears to sleep while standing, 

 remaining motionless, and if forced to move walking in an 

 unsteady manner. Soon it falls, and, if the end is to be death 

 (which is exceptional), remains stretched out on the ground ; 

 respiration becomes slower, the temperature falls, and after 



